The Propane Man

[bore_pig]

I stay on "Will call". Got a 200 gallon min delivery. Only have a 325 gallon tank, so I run it down to about 20%, then just have it filled.

If I was to go on the "Keep fill" program, the price per gallon would be lower and they would fill me monthly. No matter the amount needed! Ain't that a racket! It sounds great, but I really like buying gas only as I need it.

Last year I used 215 gallons. This year should be a bit more, but not by much. Try to keep the gas man away!

 

[WVwoodsman]

That really sucks and after reading about the trials and tribulations I don't think I would ever want to have to deal with that whole propane mess! I have natural gas, but I don't use it.

 

[Stihl310]

I just called the propane co. the other day to ask about getting my tank moved...( for my OWB) They asked my why I wanted it moved so soon ( just built a new house) I said "oh, well we're going to be building a garage rigth there, originally we weren't going to but changed our minds" LOL... I have a feeling they wouldn't move it if they knew what was going in there...

I hate propane, I'm starting to think the stuff doesn't even create any heat... when I put my hand over the registers the heat doesn't feel any more than about 90 degrees coming out.... it's terrible, growing up with wood heat spoiled me... now it's just a matter of time till I can slap a lock the propane tank

 

[Mkarlson]

I'll try to be nice here cause my propane supplier is also my employer.


PROPANE SUCKS!

Had my raping filling at the summer fill price just to see it drop 30 cents a gallon a month later. Just to get even I shut my furnace down this year and have yet to turn it on. Thank god for wood heat!

 

[AOD]

They had better not piss off the wrong person. Someone with automatic weapons and explosives could wreak havoc at a big propane distribution center.

 

[blakey]

This was not a disgruntled customer but there was a propane depot blow up in Toronto this past summer in a residential area. Here is the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV5udSWJcZo

 

[November Wolf]

I hate propane, I'm starting to think the stuff doesn't even create any heat... when I put my hand over the registers the heat doesn't feel any more than about 90 degrees coming out.... it's terrible, growing up with wood heat spoiled me... now it's just a matter of time till I can slap a lock the propane tank

Well all Propane and Natural gas are not created equal. I know that when the gas has a high co2 mixture it will not burn very efficient. I know that in our gas pipelines the co2 has to be below 2% or our customers (Consumers, Great Lakes, ect...) will not take it. I have seen it as high as 10% when the co2 plants are down and the end user has no idea what they are getting. It's alot better today but 10 years ago you got what you got.

 

[jcappe]

I'll try to be nice here cause my propane supplier is also my employer.


PROPANE SUCKS!

That is hilarious! I'm just glad I don't have to worry about THE propane guy anymore

 

[JBinKC]

I dumped propane as a primary fuel in the middle of winter a few years back when the local companies all of a sudden wouldn't honor summer contract prices anymore and I got jacked with a bill about $400 more than I expected.


Personally, I don't trust them one bit and really have no sympathy for them that this year they are likely selling acquired inventory at prices close to their original cost right now.

With that said I may fill my tank during the summer as a precautionary measure in the circumstance I can't be around the house provided the price is low enough.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

My fuel oil distributor, which the owner is an old high school friend, was shocked when I canceled auto fill. He's lost a lot of biz to us wood burners in the 'hood. I figure there are around 30-40 OWB'S within a 10 mile radius of my house!

 

[Stein]

While I still burn as much wood as I can, we run a lot of propane. I guess I don't feel so bad now. Just got filled up last week. $1.69/gal, which is still too much, sounds pretty good compared to what I read here.

 

[clawmute]

Hard Times?

Everything you can do yourself just do it. Over and over in my brief existence I've had to relearn that simple axiom. If you can buy a propane tank ( if legalities in your area permit) - don't rent theirs. Fortunately in our area legislators haven't micro-legislated every square inch of out lives YET. I have two tanks now, a 150gal and a 250 gal.

Do it yourself if you can, or learn how. Being dependent on strangers who do not care if you live or die or not is a very risky situation. Since going back to wood heat 100 gallons of propane for the water heater and kitchen stove lasts most of a year. It kills me to have to call them!

When I lost my business several years ago and was forced into bankruptcy (the kind where you still have to pay everything, by the way, over $100K to date) and couldn't pay my tank rental, my dear wife stood in the driveway as the propane company hauled away the tank - in winter it was. We did without heat or hot water for some time until God helped us out.

Here's a testimony to God's glorious provision. A widow lady friend worked with a man who had a cabin on a lake. She mentioned to him that her friends needed to buy a propane tank, and had no heat. He told her he had one not being used at his cabin. Well, he flat out gave it to us! He put the tank in in 1961 or so but decided to go all electric instead. The tank was FULL of propane!

My son and I went with a trailer one night forty miles to the cabin and used a come-along and winched the full tank onto a flat bed trailer. After hooking it up that valve was cracked for the first time in over forty years, and we had heat in our house! (those cold showers were grim, my son and I were the only ones with moxie enough to stand them!)

When I was still in high school God prepared this full tank of propane for my family knowing that some 40 YEARS later we would need it! Everytime I drive by that tank it still seems mysterious and miraculous. God will provide, I've seen it. When men do nothing God gets up and steps in. I know that this wonderful forum is all about wood - which I love in every form - but everything is connected to the creator.

PROPANE COMPANIES? - I'd rather think about something else, something nice, like weird green propane tanks being carried down from heaven by a flock of angels.


.....

 

[KotG]

We don't use propane anymore after what happened last year. We had a 500 gallon tank that we used for backup heat and hadn't filled it in a while. The propane company called and said that we needed to fill it right away or start paying tank rental fees. We asked how much the fees were and were told $4 a month. We said fine, we'll pay the rental fees, but would also like to drop down to a 250 gallon tank.

A couple of days later we get a bill for over $200. We called and asked what the bill was for and they said it was the monthly tank rental fee. What happened to $4 a month? They told us that was only if we were going to fill the tank that day. We told them to come pick up their tank, we'd find someone else.

Well, they did come and get their tank, and managed to drive through one of my wife's flower gardens in the process. Bastards.

 

[wdchuck]

We received a letter in the mail, including an invoice for the LP tank lease we owed.



I called, left a message with the VP and waited.
Someone else called back, and we had a chat that included me making them aware of the age of the property and the age of the tank, and just because they had a sticker on the tank, and they filled it for us, didn't mean they owned it or could just start charging rental fees when they had not done so in the years we've been here.
So I said, " Bring the original tank purchase agreement with the tank serial number on it, from 1962 to prove you own the tank, until then, kindly retract your invoice from our account."
Haven't heard from them in 3months, so we'll see what they do on the next order/delivery statement.

I'm thinking the reciept from that long ago will be yellowed by time, so tough luck to them trying to prove they own it, and I don't imagine the previous farming family renting the tank, it would have been purchased up front.

The last driver had been on the route for 35years, great guy, this new guy is of a different breed, not as warm...kind of like LP.

Other than that, and the fact that we pay $0.10 more per gallon than those using 500gals per year or more, they are the best racket for LP around here.

 

[chainsawaddict]

We received a letter in the mail, including an invoice for the LP tank lease we owed.



I called, left a message with the VP and waited.
Someone else called back, and we had a chat that included me making them aware of the age of the property and the age of the tank, and just because they had a sticker on the tank, and they filled it for us, didn't mean they owned it or could just start charging rental fees when they had not done so in the years we've been here.
So I said, " Bring the original tank purchase agreement with the tank serial number on it, from 1962 to prove you own the tank, until then, kindly retract your invoice from our account."
Haven't heard from them in 3months, so we'll see what they do on the next order/delivery statement.

I'm thinking the reciept from that long ago will be yellowed by time, so tough luck to them trying to prove they own it, and I don't imagine the previous farming family renting the tank, it would have been purchased up front.

The last driver had been on the route for 35years, great guy, this new guy is of a different breed, not as warm...kind of like LP.

Other than that, and the fact that we pay $0.10 more per gallon than those using 500gals per year or more, they are the best racket for LP around here.

You are like a fortune teller. You have successfully predicted my future

 

[November Wolf]

Everything you can do yourself just do it. Over and over in my brief existence I've had to relearn that simple axiom. If you can buy a propane tank ( if legalities in your area permit) - don't rent theirs. Fortunately in our area legislators haven't micro-legislated every square inch of out lives YET. I have two tanks now, a 150gal and a 250 gal.

Do it yourself if you can, or learn how. Being dependent on strangers who do not care if you live or die or not is a very risky situation. Since going back to wood heat 100 gallons of propane for the water heater and kitchen stove lasts most of a year. It kills me to have to call them!

When I lost my business several years ago and was forced into bankruptcy (the kind where you still have to pay everything, by the way, over $100K to date) and couldn't pay my tank rental, my dear wife stood in the driveway as the propane company hauled away the tank - in winter it was. We did without heat or hot water for some time until God helped us out.

Here's a testimony to God's glorious provision. A widow lady friend worked with a man who had a cabin on a lake. She mentioned to him that her friends needed to buy a propane tank, and had no heat. He told her he had one not being used at his cabin. Well, he flat out gave it to us! He put the tank in in 1961 or so but decided to go all electric instead. The tank was FULL of propane!

My son and I went with a trailer one night forty miles to the cabin and used a come-along and winched the full tank onto a flat bed trailer. After hooking it up that valve was cracked for the first time in over forty years, and we had heat in our house! (those cold showers were grim, my son and I were the only ones with moxie enough to stand them!)

When I was still in high school God prepared this full tank of propane for my family knowing that some 40 YEARS later we would need it! Everytime I drive by that tank it still seems mysterious and miraculous. God will provide, I've seen it. When men do nothing God gets up and steps in. I know that this wonderful forum is all about wood - which I love in every form - but everything is connected to the creator.

PROPANE COMPANIES? - I'd rather think about something else, something nice, like weird green propane tanks being carried down from heaven by a flock of angels.


.....

Great testimony. It is amazing how God works sometimes.

 

[chainsawaddict]

Im feeling a lot better now...I went out and split a cord of ash with my maul, its amazing how much better a guy can feel after a few hours with that baby. I find myself peeking out the window, looking at the new stacks and smiling.

Maybe its like what clawmute said. Directly after this run in with the propane man happened, I ran into a rancher i knew very little at the a school christmas program(where my wife teaches) and he just happened to be looking for a guy to "go and clear a bunch of dead ash out of a canyon in his pasture." I've had a good christmas "break"

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

Yes it is! God watches out for us!

Great testimony. It is amazing how God works sometimes.

God took care of us here in MN via my brother in CA. Currently he's working a very well paid contract position with computer networking. My brother bought me my wood furnace and then told me to look for a splitter. Both items came off of CL. Both items cost $550.00. He GAVE me 1100.00!

Dan

 

[thejdman04]

So I call the gas company before the holidays, I needed some propane(hear me out) We were having company with baby, and my wife wanted them to be in the basement bedroom since the others were filled with other family. The basement hovers around 50 degrees since the woodstove is on the main level.

Anyway, I ask for 100 gallons of propane for my tank, he says no, they have a 200 gallon minimum for delivery. I say, OK, and told him id find somebody else and/or make due.

So the next night he is leaving our house as I show up. I didnt think much of it, figured he had some left in the truck, and left me 100 gallons. Nope. I get home and there is a bill for 300 gallons stuck in the door. $600 worth of propane. At the rate I use it thats enough for the next 8-9 years. I gave it a couple days and called the office. explained the scenario and told them I didnt want it. they reluctantly said they would send someone out to pump it out. So the SAME driver comes out to pump out the gas. I walk out to talk to him and he says "so I goofed, huh?" I told him" not if you only pump out 200 gallons and bill me for the remaining 100." He didnt like that idea, and told me that he didnt bring enough hose to pump it out. He would have to come back. (same driver)

So fast forward to yesterday, the driver comes back and starts pumping out propane, but cant get it to work only pumps out 55 gallons and says he will have to come back again. and away he goes...

I just got off the phone with a woman at the office, and she said he would come back again, and leave me with 100 gallons, but at a higher rate! (this is after 3 trips to my house!) She then reminded me that they have a 200 gallon delivery limit.

I told her to just pump it all out, and I wont charge them for the headache.

Anyway, I was reminded why I love my woodstove...

customer service at its finest

 

[chainsawaddict]

UPDATE:

Still have not pumped out the propane, they are saying because of the snow they cant get close enough to the tank. Meanwhile, they are sending the original bill minus the 55 gallons to collections because it has been unpaid for 2 months.:censored:

I am about ready to lose my cool with these folk:censored:

I did not order 1 single drop of this propane, I own the tank, and do not have any previous purchases with them. I simply called inquiring about delivery and price...